As you examine your life during the ordinance of the sacrament, I hope your thoughts center not only on things you have done wrong but also on things you have done right—moments when you have felt that Heavenly Father and the Savior were pleased with you. You may even take a moment during the sacrament to ask God to help you see these things. If you do, I promise you will feel something. You will feel hope.

When I have done this, the Spirit has reassured me that while I’m still far from perfect, I’m better today than I was yesterday. And this gives me confidence that, because of the Savior, I can be even better tomorrow.

Always
is a long time, and it implies a lot of focused effort. You know from experience how hard it is to think consciously of one thing all the time. But no matter how well you keep your promise to always remember Him, He always remembers you.

The Savior knows your challenges. He knows what it is like to have the cares of life press upon you. He knows how urgently you need the blessing that comes from always remembering Him and obeying Him—“that [you] may
always
have his Spirit to be with [you]” (
DC 20:77
; emphasis added).

So He welcomes you back to the sacrament table each week, once again offering you the chance to witness before Him that you will always remember Him.

The mission's greatest discovery came when Schmitt exclaimed that he had found orange regolith, or moon soil. Cernan joked in his autobiography that he feared his crewmate had "overdosed on rocks", but took a look despite his skepticism.

Just before going back into the lunar module, Cernan drove the lunar rover roughly a mile away so that the video camera could photograph the takeoff the next day. Next, he knelt and etched his daughter Tracy's initials — T D C — into the dust, according to his autobiography, "The Last Man on the Moon."

Years later, Cernan was looking at a painting done by fellow astronaut Alan Bean. It showed the Apollo 17 crew working near a massive boulder they had encountered during their mission. According to Bean's book, "Painting Apollo," Cernan said he wished he had put his daughter's name on the side of the rock. Bean, therefore, included her name on the rock in the painting, which is called "Tracy's Boulder."

As Cernan prepared to climb up the lunar ladder for the last time, he paused and spoke these words:

"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come – but we believe not too long into the future – I'd like to just (say) what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus–Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

He and his crewmates returned to Earth on Dec. 19, 1972.

Cernan recalled that he was tempted to fly on the shuttle, and he probably could have flown a couple of the early missions. But after being to the moon, he was not as inclined to do it. That's why he left the agency in 1976, he said.

"You wouldn't get me up there to do that. Once you've gone to the moon, staying home just isn't good enough."

Cernan left NASA for private business, which included starting the company The Cernan Co. for management and consulting in areas such as aerospace. While he did not fly the shuttle, he did report on it for ABC for a time. He also was chair of the board for Johnson Engineering, a company that specialized in space crew stations.

Speaking in his NASA oral interview, Cernan recalled a speech he had given in 1973 about Apollo 17's legacy. Most of his feelings on that hadn't changed three decades later, he said.

"I said, 'I've been tired of being called the end. Apollo 17 is not the end. It's just the beginning of a whole new era in the history of mankind.' Of course at that time I said, 'We're not only going to go back to the moon, we will be on our way to Mars by the turn of the century.' "

Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space.com who is one of the few Canadian journalists to report regularly on space exploration. She is pursuing a Ph.D. part-time in aerospace sciences (University of North Dakota) after completing an M.Sc. (space studies) at the same institution. She also holds a bachelor of journalism degree from Carleton University. Besides writing, Elizabeth teaches communications at the university and community college level. To see her latest projects, follow Elizabeth on Twitter at.

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